The veils of the soul

In reality, who am I? Am I my body? Or am I my mind? Or am I something else?

 The Upanishads teach that our true nature is the self (Jivaatma). The soul has veils that prevents us from realizing our true nature. What are these veils?

First, we've the material world full of sense objects surrounding us.

Next come the five organs of action (Karma Indriyas) of our own body. These are speech, hands, legs, reproductive & excretory organs.

Next come the sense organs (Jnana Indriyas). These comprise sight, smell, taste, hearing & touch. The Jnana Indriyas are more subtle than the Karma Indriyas, which makes them more powerful. For instance if you see or smell something good, the senses can make you walk to the source & examine it.

Next comes the mind (Manas), which is also called the Antha Karana (inner organ). The mind is more subtle than the sense organs, which makes it more powerful. The mind can control the sense organs and make them do what it wants to do. The mind is restless in nature and always seeks new experiences. For instance, it can decide that it wants to watch a movie or travel somewhere and make you do that. The mind makes us believe that the mind is the true I. The mind will never take responsibility for its actions & if an action goes wrong, it can make us feel guilty. When you satisfy a craving of the mind, it will calm down for a short bit and then move on to the next desire. It will never be satisfied.

Next comes the intellect (Buddhi). Whenever the mind becomes calm, the intellect becomes active. Whenever the intellect is active, that is the time when a human is capable of great accomplishment. For anyone to solve a very tough problem, the mind calms down its restless nature and the intellect comes into play. Or a sportsperson might say that he's in the zone, meaning his restless mind calmed down and his powerful intellect took over the game. The intellect is more subtle than the mind, which makes it more powerful.

After the intellect comes the ego (Aham), which gives the sense of I. My name is Rama. My profession is engineering. I'm a female. I'm Chinese. This is my family. This is my culture. This is my country. All these associations with "I" comes from the ego. The ego is more subtle than the intellect, which makes it more powerful.

Next comes Avyaktam, which is your formless self, which is your state during dreamless sleep (Sushupthi). Remove the subtle material nature of Avyaktam and you get your Jivatma.

Do you have to believe this? Absolutely not. Then, how can I determine if this is true? Through meditation (Dhyana), which is the seventh limb (anga) of Ashtaanga Yoga, you can determine whether this is true yourself. This is considered akin to peeling your own internal onion, layer by layer.

It is we who have created the veils of desire on our own soul. And it is only we who can start removing the veils. And this can happen only through the efforts of meditation.

Find out who you truly are. Find out your own true nature. And you shall know the truth. So say the Upanishads and the great saints of this world.